A printed wiring board includes, as a component, a dielectric layer of either a reinforced or non-reinforced resin that is known in the art as a prepreg. On the opposite sides of the prepreg are bonded conductive metal foil sheets. Subsequently, after curing, the metal on the laminate, through a number of photolithographic processes, is etched to produce conductive paths, or circuits, on the surface of the cured dielectric layer. This layer may be used individually as a two sided printed wiring board or assembled with other etched layers to produce a multilayer printed wiring board.
These printed wiring boards are typically assembled by alternately stacking conductive metal foil sheets, prepreg sheets and separator sheets into a press “book”. The book is then inserted into a lamination press where it is cured under heat and pressure into a printed wiring board laminate. After pressing, the cured, metal-clad laminates are typically detached from the separator sheets and are subjected to further processing.
Sometimes, the printed wiring boards have waste board material that must first be removed so that the printed wiring boards fit appropriately on a conveyor belt in preparation for assembly. One system of removing the waste board material is by using scissors to remove the waste board material so that the printed wiring boards have a predetermined configuration. Also, some systems for removing the waste board material can only process one printed wiring board at a time.
It would be beneficial to provide a cutting apparatus for removing waste board from printed wiring boards in a more efficient manner. The present invention provides this benefit.